In a sea of iPhone 5/5s cases, the Oberon Design cases stand out with unique images etched on leather that covers the rubber shell casing. These cases are flexible yet protective and they give you access to ports and protect the buttons. Oberon Design offers these cases for iPhone 5/5s, iPhone 4, Samsung Galaxy S5 and S4, iPad models, Kindle models and more. Each leather design has its unique color overlaying on top of shiny black rubber.

Design

Oberon Design started out as a leather journal cover maker and has brought their expertise in making long-lasting cover protection for paper to gadgets. The casing in the Oberon Design case is made with rubber. The flexibility makes it easy to install the case and to take it off. The rubber is matte on the interior of the case and shiny on the exterior. Our iPhone 5s review unit case doesn't grasp the phone tightly, and leaves a sliver of the top edge exposed. The case covers the back and sides of the iPhone 5s but it doesn’t cover the front display glass, though it's still ever so slightly raised above the display so that when you put the phone face down, the case's sides will hold the phone's display off a flat surface. Since the case isn't too tight on the front, it doesn't interfere with any screen protectors you might use to protect the front glass.

For the iPhone 5s, the Oberon Design cases come in a dozen interesting designs in unique colors. The case reviewed here, Cloud Dragon, is one of the popular designs that the case maker also uses for their laptop bags and tablet cases. Other favorites include Van Gogh's Sky in deep sky blue, Forest in forest green and Celtic Hounds in red wine color. The Oberon Design case is light, weighing 0.8 ounces.

Features

The Oberon Design case offers cutouts for the silence button, the audio jack and the Lightning port, though these cutouts don't leave extra space around the ports. If your headphone plug is short, you might need an extender to work with your phone in this case. The case has a perfect cutout for the rear camera and flash, giving the lens enough room to have a full view and the flash to fully illuminate. The Oberon Design case covers the power button and the volume buttons. While it's easy to use the power button under its protective cover, the volume buttons are a bit hard to operate. The stiff round buttons covering the phone's buttons are designed so that you don't accidentally press them in your pocket or bag, but it offers very little tactile feedback and you have to press on them fairly hard for them to work.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a flexible shell case that's eye-catching, give the Oberon Design cases a look. The iPhone 5s case is protective, lightweight and slim, easy to use and the leather images in saturated colors bring something unique to the table. The case feels soft in hand and it's also affordable.